PREFACE. 



I HAVE but a few words to add to the prefatory remarks 

 which will be found in the first volume. I therein sketched 

 out the plan of the work which I proposed to follow. Since 

 the issue of the first volume, two species have been added to 

 the British list. Of the Sub-alpine Warbler {Sylvia suhalpijia)^ 

 a specimen was shot in St. Kilda in June, 1894, by Mr. J. S. 

 Elliot, as recorded by me in the Bulletin of the British Orni- 

 thologists' Club, Vol. IV. p. ix. Coues' Redpole {Cannabi^ia 

 exilipes) has been obtained by Dr. Bendelack Hewetson near 

 Easington on the west coast of Yorkshire during the winter of 

 1893-94, as has been recorded by Mr. John CordeauH in the 

 "Naturalist" for March, 1894 (p. 84). 



While the criticisms on the first volume of the " Handbook" 

 have been wholly favourable and kindly, three notices in par- 

 ticular have appeared, in reply to which I should like to say a 

 few words. 



Dr. P. L. Sclater seems to imply (" Ibis," 1894, p. 566) that 

 the nomenclature adopted by me in the " Handbook " is intro- 

 duced into my writings for the first time, and he alludes par- 

 ticularly to the names of the genera in the Family Corvidce, but 

 these names are not of my own foundation. I adopted them, 

 after monographing the whole of the Family in the " Catalogue 

 of Birds," twenty years ago. My conclusions have been followed 

 by naturalists in many countries, and, I hope, will continue to 

 be so. I would further remark that Dr. Stejneger's " incon- 

 venient discoveries" have not had a "great attraction " forme, 

 as my kindly critic suggests. I really hate all these changes of 



